I’ve drawn since I could hold a pencil and began formal training at 19 while working in illustration and metal design. I had to work, and commercial illustration jobs came easily but were time-consuming, so I tended to gravitate to teachers for specific skills rather than degree programs. My first real graphic arts teacher was the now-famous Western photographer, Jay Dusard, at Prescott College in the mountains of northern Arizona.

After moving to Phoenix at age 26 and signing up for drawing classes, I came upon a deserted printing press in the Graphic Arts Department at a college in Glendale. Luckily Mirta Hamilton, a wonderful printmaker, was heading up the Art Department at the time and gave me leave to set up an impromptu printmaking studio in the tiny storage room that housed the press. She then worked with me in extended studio sessions to learn the fine art of printmaking. And there was just something about that elegant, antique machine. For the first time in my life I felt what it was to be in the right place doing exactly the right thing.